Report, Pictures, Results- Day 2- Canadian Roller Speed Skating Championships

July 2009
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Posted on July 7, 2009 by Peter Doucet

The second and final day of the 2009 Canadian Roller Speed Skating Championships took place at Toronto’s Father Remond Track.

Withbetter wind conditions than Saturday, skaters broke numerous national records.

Some of the news coming from this year’s Canadian Championships;

2010 Canadian Roller Speed Skating Championships will be held in Calgary in July. More information will be posted on Roller Sports Canada
There will not be any skaters representing Canada at the 2009 World Roller Speed Skating Championships this September in China. This is because there were not any skaters who submitted World Team Trials entries.

You can use the links below to view photos, reports, and results-

Volunteers & Officials Make It Happen
With a very small but committed roller speed skating community, each volunteer’s impact & importance is great and appreciated. The volunteers & officials who put in the long andunseen hours did a good job putting together these Championships. I know about the behind-the-scenes work that goes on; I was responsible for getting the generator, washrooms, sound system, and permits for the Championships. I also helped measure and mark the starting & finishing lines & promote the Championships to other clubs & skaters. We also had the RSC Speed Technical Committee meeting on Friday night where rules were discussed. This is just the tip of the iceberg of things that need to get done when organizing an event.

It took a small team of officials, tabulators, starters, place-judges, and volunteers to run these championships

The Young Skaters Break Records
The young skaters in the Primary, Freshmen and Intermediate categories set many Canadian records on the 2nd day of racing.

Marissa Grayson- 10km elimination- Intermediate
Dragi Dodevski0 500-meter sprint- Intermediate
Bailin Xie- 2km points- Freshmen
Adrian Alvarez- 2km points- Freshmen
Xavier Charron- 800-meters- Primary
Karelle Berger, Marjorie Berger, Bailin Xie- relay- Freshmen
Angus Cowan, Adrian Alvarez, Hugh Xie- relay- Freshmen

Adrian Alvarez leading the Freshmen boys’ 2km points race- photo by Peter Doucet

Senior Men- Pauley Brothers Strike Gold, 15km record
The senior men’s 15km elimination race came down to a final-lap sprint between Jesse Pauley and I. Pauley grabbed the lead with 200-meters to go and held on to claim the win. Pauleybroke the Canadian record, set earlier in June, by one second.

The 500-meter final saw Jade Pauley, Alex D’Mello, Brett Leavens, and I take to the line. We all had to qualify through heats and semi-finals. Leo Frusteri, one of the 500-meter sprint contenders, went down coming out of the final corner in his heat. In the final, I took the early lead, but Jade Pauley accelerated past me in the back-straight and took the lead right before the entry of the final corner. He held on andtook the win with a gap over 2nd place.

Stephane Charron (outside left), Travis Shaw (leading), Marc Belanger (yellow & blue), Jesse Pauley (right)- 500-meter b-final- photo from Marie-Eve Leblanc

The final race of the day for the senior men was the relay. With four teams, including the trios of Jade Pauley/ Jesse Pauley/ Travis Shaw, Simon Clement/ Benoit Letourneau/ Stephane Charron, Alex D’Mello/ Chris D’Mello/ Brett Leavens, and Morgan Williams/ Marc Belanger/ Peter Doucet, racing action was fast. The race was decided in the final stretch with Jade Pauley and I stretching for the line and taking the win by a fraction of a wheel and besting the old Canadian mark by about 12-seconds to 4:17.

Open men’s relay finish- Jade Pauley edges me out- photo from Marie-Eve Leblanc

Senior Women- Morgane Echardour’s First Canadian Title & 15km record
The senior women saw Morgane Echardour earn her first senior Canadian title. She won the 15km elimination race by taking the early lead and finishing almost a lap ahead of Sarah Hopkins. After clicking skates with Ottawa’s Dominique Lalonde, Candy Wong finished in 3rd place, earning the bronze medal in the distance category. In winning the race, Echardour set the 15km elimination record in a time of 27:21, besting the old mark by 1-minute 23-seconds.

Sarah Hopkins won her 4thrace of the weekend in the 500-meter race. Morgane Echardour took the early lead in the final, but Hopkins flew by Echardour in the back straightaway andtook the win by 1-second.

Morgane Echardour leads Shannon Hegarty, Sarah Hopkins, and Leah Kaluta, senior women’s 500-meter A final- photo by Peter Doucet

Hopkins, Echardour, and Dominique Lalondeteamed up for the relay. They set the new Canadian record with a time of 4:54, 4-seconds lower than the old record time.

Wilby’s Pictures
On Saturday, I had a chance to chat with Wilby Mcknight. He hung out for Saturday’s racing action before returning to Ottawa on Saturday evening. He posted all his pictures here.

Photo from flickr_photographer